Denver to Crested Butte Colorado By Car Itinerary
How about a Denver to Crested Butte Road Trip that includes natural hot springs, canyon rim drives, and high mesas wine tasting? Add on farmers’ markets, hidden lakes, and gorgeous mountain towns full of year-round fun activities.
You can pull all this together and wow your family or the other half (or both!) using our Denver to Crested Butte Road Trip Itinerary. Stop anywhere that suits along the route, including Frisco, Glenwood Springs, Palisade, Crested Butte, Leadville & more!
We suggest a week (or longer) for the full loop, but of course, you can pick and choose from our suggestions and create your own Rockies route.
We created our 7-day Denver to Crested Butte, Colorado Road Trip Itinerary to help you plan an affordable, unique Colorado driving adventure!
7-Day Colorado Road Trip Itinerary Overview
If you follow this route, expect to travel around 690 miles during your trip. Time-wise wise this will mean approximately 12 hours of driving time. If you add places or explore a side road or two (why not!), it will, of course, take you more hours.
In our experience, driving this distance over 7 days gives you time to soak in each destination and experience some of the many activities on offer.
➡️Day 1: Frisco and Vail Village
➡️Day 2: Glenwood Canyon & Town of Glenwood Springs
➡️Day 3: Palisade – Wine Tasting in High Mesas
➡️Day 4: Colorado National Monument
➡️Day 5: Gunnison to Crested Butte
➡️Day 6: Day In Crested Butte
➡️Day 7: Return to Denver via Leadville
To avoid the risk of snow in these high altitudes, take this drive from May to September. You will likely find everywhere busier in peak summer months like June and July.
We love this trip in September when aspens turn golden across the mountains.
📍 Road Trip Day 1: Denver to Vail
Total Driving Today is 97 miles (on Interstate 70), taking around 1.5 hours.
Ok, let’s get this Denver to Crested Butte, Colorado Road Trip going! We
Things To Do:
- Make a brief stop at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, a unique outdoor venue cut from upthrust rocks!
- Or, stop for Coffee in Idaho Springs, the start of Colorado’s gold rush & maybe even tour a mine.
- Have lunch on Main Street in Frisco, a beautiful mountain town just off I-70. Easy Hike from town to Rainbow Lake or stroll to the Marina & beach.
- Go to A Summer Concert at Vail’s Ford Amphitheater.
Places to Eat:
- Bagali’s Frisco – lovely outdoor patio, casual Italian/Pizza/Salads menu.
- Rooftop @High Town on Main, Frisco – Mountain Views & varied menu.
- The Fitz Bar & Restaurant Vail – by the river, chic and delicious food.
- Up the Creek Bar and Grill, Vail – relaxed outdoor and indoor seating.
Place To Stay:
Vail is a beautiful ski resort loved by millions of visitors each year, summer and winter. Visiting in summer is ‘off-season’ so accommodation prices will be lower.
📍Luxury : Four Seasons The Lionshead area of Vail also has good overnight options. (A free shuttle runs between here and Vail Village but is an easy walk between the two)
Once you’re in Vail Town, you may feel you’re in a Swiss or Austrian village. But don’t let the kitschy looks fool you. Vail’s restaurants and accommodations are first-class! There’s a lot to do on the mountain, as well as golfing, cycling, rafting!
The Snow Sports Museum is an excellent way to learn about the evolution of winter sports in Colorado! They have a cute shop too if you like checking out fun souvenirs.
📍 Road Trip Day 2: Vail to Glenwood Springs
Total Driving Today 61 miles taking around 1 hour.
Get your phone/camera charged! You’re going to experience a stunning drive through Glenwood Springs Canyon. It’s too bad there are very few legal ‘stopping places’ but given the engineering required to cut through this terrain, it’s understandable!
Don’t worry, you can stop at the Glenwood Canyon Recreation path or spectacular Hanging Lake. Bring good boots and drinking water because it is around a 1200-foot hike up (1.2m distance) to the Hanging Lake. It’s open until the end of October (weather permitting) and a hiking permit is around $12.
If that sounds like too much for a relaxing road trip, then carry on to Glenwood Springs. In the center of town, you will find world-famous Glenwood Hot Springs and the Vapor Caves. No need to book for the hot springs but you should for the caves. It’s around $20 for each adult for a couple of hours.
With natural spring waters flowing through the caves at 125 degrees, you will emerge feeling rejuvenated! An alternative hot spring is Iron Mountain Hot Springs with over 30 natural springs and a mineral pool on offer. A 3-hour soak is bookable online at their site with the last slot at 7 pm.
Adventure Park Glenwood Springs
The highest adventure park in the USA is also in Glenwood Springs. Take the gondola up to the top and get your thrills from alpine coasting, zip lining, roller coasting, or perhaps explore the Fairy Caves that sit atop an old mining mountain.
Accommodation in Glenwood Springs is a mix of named brand hotels which are usually great for a night. In the past we’ve stayed at the hotel next to the railway station – Hotel Maxwell Anderson.
It’s within walking distance to Doc Holiday’s bar as well as other restaurants, bars, and shops. A classic, the Hotel Colorado is a beautiful building to check out, dating back to the 1800s. I wonder what the first guests to this town thought about their road trip across much of the USA!
📍 Road Trip Day 3: Glenwood Springs to Palisade
Total Driving Today 75 miles taking just over 1 hour.
Moving on from canyon country, you will see the terrain start to change and mesas rock formations fill the skyline from I-70. As you arrive in Palisade it feels like you have been transported to a mini Italian or Argentina winery world. Rows of vines line up at the foothills of the mesa ranges.
Palisade is a fantastic spot for a couple of nights of relaxing, wine tasting, and depending on when you go, tasting the freshest of their famous Palisade Peaches! Read our detailed 3 Days in Palisade Colorado Itinerary for more ideas of things to do.
Stay at a wine lodge for the best experience of this town. We love the Wine Country Inn which was Colorado’s first wine-themed lodge and with its pool, jacuzzi, and proximity to many vineyards, it’s a great base. They also offer wine tasting daily!
Mountain Country Wine Tasting
With 20 wineries to visit, and the majority offering tastings, what’s not to love about this small town! Visit a couple: Colterris Tasting Rooms and Restoration Vineyards which also host live music concerts.
Many of the tasting spots are located high on the mesa with wonderful views of the Grand Mesa and Bookcliff mountains. It’s a fantastic stop on your Colorado road trip itinerary.
If wine isn’t your tipple, there are some excellent breweries and distillers. We enjoyed a tasting and dinner at the casual Peach Street Distillers.
The festivals in Palisade are booked out months in advance but with a little pre-planning, you can be part of the Peach Festival (August), the Colorado Mountain Winefest (September), or earlier in the year the Honeybee or Lavender celebrations!
Kids will love picking fruit in some of the farms around Palisade. There are retail shops attached to the farms growing a range of fruits. Prices are great, so stock up with peach salsa (delicious), pear jams, and habanero sauces!
📍 Road Trip Day 4: National Monument & Grand Junction
Driving distance is 80+ miles. Plan for 2 hours of driving time and perhaps another hour or two as you drive through the park.
Head to the Colorado National Monument National Park Visitors Center within the park. From here you can take a few short hikes that give you a sense of the scale of this natural canyon which has been billions of years in the making. Entry to National Parks is currently around $25 unless you have a membership in which case it will be free!
Next drive around the rim, stopping off at equally amazing spots – it’s around 23 miles. Two of our favourite photo stops were the Coke Ovens and Independence Monument. It would be easy to spend a day here if you want to do longer hikes. Oh, and the sight of the baby desert bighorn sheep was a bonus! You have to be quick with the camera as they are fast 🙂
Overnight in Grand Junction.
📍 Road Trip Day 5: Black Gunnison to Crested Butte
We continued our drive to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (also a National Park). With dramatic jagged cliff walls, this is incredible to see in person. I imagine they attract serious climbers from around the globe.
The visitors center is excellent and there is a short path that leads down to a great viewpoint. This is an International Dark Sky Park. Rangers conduct guided tours to star gaze at night – something I’d love if staying in the park area overnight. South Rim has camping sites and these are open year-round.
The roads around the park are steep with vertical drop-offs and sometimes you might take a wrong turn. We did and arrived at the beautiful Curecanti National Recreation Area where we saw a deer dart in front of us and lots of little pikas scampering around rocks – a great fishing spot!
From here drive on to the mountain town and ski resort of Crested Butte. Built around an explosion of early mining in the 1800s, it’s kept an ‘old world’ charm.
📍 Road Trip Day 6: Crested Butte
A day without driving.
A small town, it is a place to connect with nature. Hike, picnic on a remote lake, wander the farmer’s market. When you’re done, make new friends over a beer on Elk Street, the main thoroughfare. In other words, be as active or as lazy as you feel like.
There are endless hiking options around Crested Butte. We hiked East River Trail which is loved by many when in mid-summer it is filled with wildflowers!
If you fancy more action, take your bike onto the ski lift and then ride down Crested Butte Mountain. The ski resort area is fairly low-key in summer otherwise. But there is plenty of accommodation here and in the village itself, which is a mile or so down the hill. A free shuttle bus runs between the two locations.
Another fun short trip out of Crested Butte is a hike (or drive) to the ghost town of Gothic, which today is a scientific research center. There are many trails to take and also the center offers daily tours of its work here.
During summer months, there are numerous festivals to enjoy if you plan: – art festivals, chili cookoffs, and beer festivals as well as an annual ELK run (5K)!
There are a couple of places in Crested Butte that are regarded as institutions and they continue to attract visitors. The first is Kochevar Saloon which is famed as being the oldest bar in town.
A little further up Elk Avenue, is a casual pizza restaurant called The Secret Stash! Just drop by – you can’t reserve a table. Try both – they’re fun!
📍 Road Trip Day 7 – Return to Denver via Leadville
Allow around 2 hours to drive from Crested Butte to the highest incorporated town in the USA – Leadville. It is a fun mountain town to stop at to explore. Read our Things To Do in Leadville article for more ideas.
Mining played a big part in the history of Leadville and you can visit the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in town. If you arrive before 1 pm, catch the Leadville Express. Journey through the San Isabel National Forest for a few hours.
This is spectacular when the autumn (fall) leaves turn red and yellow in the high country. With sharp curves, high cliff areas, and bridges it’s an adventure for all ages. Book ahead via the Leadville Express website.
From Leadville, return to Frisco and reconnect with the main Interstate to return to Denver.
You can choose to stay in Frisco or neighbouring Breckenridge for your final mountain town night! Our Frisco Colorado Happy Hour post has great options for you to check out.
If you decide on ‘Breck’ as the locals call it, pop into the Continental Divide Winery tasting room for a last toast – their grapes come from the Palisade area!
Getting to Denver
Denver is the state capital of Colorado and due to its location within the USA has the country’s 3rd busiest airport!
This means it’s easy to get to the city from within the USA & Canada with competitive routes. It’s also well served internationally with non-stop flights from several European capitals.
A shuttle bus takes you to the car rental facility (for all companies). It’s a couple of miles from the airport and then you can load up and be on your way!
More Road Trips To Colorado
The US state of Colorado is a perfect road trip destination! Or you can head inter-state. We love the road trip route from Colorado via Wyoming to South Dakota.
We’ve also done a Road Trip from Florida to Colorado covering 8 states including Georgia, Tennessee, and Kansas and it was a blast!
Happy Travels!
